Meerkats live in social groups and exhibit some unusual behaviors. For instance,
ID: 168629 • Letter: M
Question
Meerkats live in social groups and exhibit some unusual behaviors. For instance, subordinate females that have not mated, may lactate and nurse the offspring of dominant females that produced offspring. You suspect that females should only nurse the offspring of closely related females. To test this, you measure the number of offspring dominant females produce and the number that subordinate females produce without the help of her females nursing their young. You discover that dominant females produce 8 offspring per year on average. Subordinate females that do not receive help from of her females only produce 2 offspring per year. Using this information, decide whether a female subordinate should help a dominant female nurse its young if the dominant female is: a complete stranger a cousin a sibling THIS IS NOT A |MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION. PLEASE ANSWER A, B, AND CExplanation / Answer
A) being a complete stranger, the dominant meerkat kills the subordinate's pups, thereby making them to nurse the dominant meerkat's pups. The subordinate meerkats get to stay in the group at the price of becoming wet nurses.
B)&C) helping a dominant meerkat, being its cousin or sibling can be considered when the dominant meerkat does not involve in the subordinates' pups infanticide.